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On Sunday 9th Nov, a group of 15 peace activists marked the World March for Peace and Non-Violence at Shannon by marching from the Town Centre to the airport entrance. At the same time Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, head of a state that stands accused of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, sat on the airport tarmac as his plane was being refuelled. And in between, up to 20 Gardai blocked the peace marchers from getting within a mile of the airport terminal.

There was a busy weekend of activism at Shannon on 26th and 27th September (2009). A women's peace group spent 24 hours at the airport engaged in a KNIT-IN for Peace, and keeping a close watch on the transit of the warplanes through the airport. Separately, three men in a boat launched Peace and anti-Lisbon signs on a raft in the Shannon Estuary Lagoon in front of the airport. All the while the airport seemed more like a military base that a civilian airport.

On Saturday 5th Sept there were at least two containers marked as property of the RAF beside a chartered Omni Air International plane at Shannon. They sat amongst the other containers, most of which were marked as Omni Air cargo. But the labels were clear: they said Royal Air Force. In other words, it seems that British military cargo is being transported through Shannon.

One of the containers that sat near the Omni Air plane was marked "Property of RAF Brize Norton". RAF Brize Norton is the home of the RAF's strategic air transport (AT) and air-to-air refueling (AAR) forces. It is the most important British military base for maintaining the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and is the main transport base for sending troops and supplies in and out of these occupied countries.

Thirteen peace activists attended the monthly Shannon peace vigil on Sunday, 9th August. As usual we were outnumbered by uniformed and plainclothed Gardai. Peace activists travelled from Dublin, Cork, Mullingar, Galway, Ennis and Limerick to attend. The reaction of passing motorists is increasingly encouraging and positive.

Since August 9 is the aniversary of the distruction of Hiroshima in 1945 by an Atomic bomb, a war crime committed by the US airforce, on the orders of the then US President, it was considered appropriate to commemorate this event. Within the airport about 200 armed US troops were passing through the airport on an Omni Air chartered troop-transporter.

The Following Day - Business as Usual at Shannon

On the following day, Monday 10 August 09, there were three warplanes at Shannon airport.

A case brought by the state against human rights activist Edward Horgan as a result of his requests to have a suspected CIA rendition plane searched at Shannon was dismissed in Ennis yesterday (20th May). Judge Mangan, presiding over Shannon District Court, dismissed the case on the basis of legal arguments made by Mr Horgans defence council.